Steve Cooney

“Master Cooney restores the ancient link between lyre and lyric, between poetry and performance, the rhapsody and rascality.” – Seamus Heaney

Since moving to Ireland from Melbourne Australia, in 1981 Stephen Cooney has made a meteoric impact on traditional music in this country. Testament to this are the seminal groups and albums that Cooney has contributed to from Sharon Shannon’s first record to his current work with Luka Bloom. For the last 6 years Steve has contributed greatly to the Guitar Festival, hosting a series of workshops & performances. Last years performance saw Steve perform a never before seen show with two percussionists & his electric guitar which still hangs in the air as one of the special highlights of the fest to date with this years performance set to eclipse them all!

Workshop Steve returns to give his now-legendary seminars at the guitar festival. In response to incredible demand, we’ve allocated extra time for Steve to share his unparalleled knowledge of a wide range of music. Last year’s workshop was one of the festival’s secret gems as Steve illustrated his unique and accessible way of notating music and creating harmony for backing melodies